HD remakes seem to becoming more and more common nowadays and I’m fairly sick of it, charging full price for a game that’s so many years old with touched up graphics (Halo CE exception). Yeah it’s nice that they bring back these gems from my childhood and let the new generation experience them but it seems like an act of desperation to me.
Back at the tender age of 6 with many gaming years set to come. I was content with my PS2 and a small collection games. I was very much entertained by platformers back then seeing how well they were made compared to how they are today. I was a big fan of Crash Bandicoot and my parents knew it so one Christmas I unwrapped a copy of a game with a title I couldn’t even pronounce properly made by Naughty Dog themselves; Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy.
Jak and Daxter little did I know back then was a revolutionary game. It featured the world’s first open world with no loading screens. This was a huge step forward in innovation, not to mention great graphical potential for a game of 2001. The story starts with 2 young boys doing what boys do best, something that they shouldn’t be doing. Jak the silent protagonist of whom you play, his best friend Daxter falls into a pit of goo called Dark Eco. Eco is the power of the entire world, there are 5 types of Eco: Green Eco the giver of life, Blue Eco the giver of power, Red Eco the giver of strength, Yellow Eco the giver of….fire and Dark Eco the giver of nasty shit you don’t want to think about. Daxter is thrown out and is transformed into an orange Otsel (cross between a otter and weasel). Your quest is to find the sage of Dark Eco who is conveniently situated across the other side of the world and change Daxter back.
The story to this game feels almost non-existent apart from in the opening cut scene and the final mission, you largely do errands for other people to earn ‘Power cells’ to gain access to new areas which include stormy water cities and volcano basins. The gameplay is predictable of a platformer, lots of jumping and punching things. The levels are distinct and well known to me due to each and every single one of them containing a bit which I hate with a passion. The levels are the highlight of this game without a doubt. The music is childish and repetitive but that’s the standard platformer way.
Jak II: Renegade came around when I was 8 and after much persuading with my parents I was allowed Jak II. I did not understand why I was not allowed it at first but when I got the game I saw that the game had radically changed from a 3+ cutesy platformer into a 12+ badass shoot-em-up action game. I enjoyed the game however it was much too challenging for me due to the poor checkpoint system, unreliable combat mechanics, poor driving physics and a confusing narrative.
This time after defeating Gol and Mia at the end of J&D:TPL you open the giant precursor door (if you find all 101 power cells) to reveal a precursor portal. At the start of the game this is fried up and you are dragged through by a hideous monster who claims to see the ‘chosen one’. You land in a strange world and are separated from the rest of the characters, Jak is arrested by the Krimson Guard as the screen blacks out. 2 years pass and Jak has aged and has finally developed a voice and a lot of anger. Daxter busts him out of jail and sees what has happened to him over the past 2 years. Baron Praxis has experimented on him with Dark Eco which has altered him into Dark Jak. You then set out to join the resistance and kill Praxis for revenge.
The game is a lot more adult, the violence is constant. Torture, shooting, stealing and carjacking are all part of the formula. The game especially back then was a lot more fun to play however the game had a ridiculously high difficulty level, you had 4 hit points before you died and with guns all over the place you will die a lot. Due to the game having no checkpoints it became frustrating in getting to the end of a mission and dying at the last moment. Awkward controls and physics hampered this even more making Jak II a let-down. I feel that Naughty Dog having taken a radical new direction with Jak II made the game incomplete for a choice of words, leaving out a lot of core mechanics from J&D:TPL such as Eco, level design and power cells.
Jak 3 was the final game in the main trilogy which set to tie up all loose ends about Jak’s past, the precursors and the on-going war for Haven city. The dark star is coming and with it all the terrible forces it possesses, Errol is back from the dead as cyborg and the metal heads are pissed…uber pissed for what happened to Kor.
The game plays near enough identically to Jak II in the way of movement and physics but introduces a much welcomed checkpoint system and a better health system. The game is much more enjoyable to play and the best out of the trilogy in terms of story. The level design is still as poor as Jak II but is a lot more interesting in terms of shape and scope. The game also introduces racing in real cars (unlike Jak II’s pathetic attempt) it also introduces a new area known as the wasteland where the opening stages of the game take place. Jak 3 is a much better, deeper and more emotional game than Jak II in every way, Naughty Dog set out to put all wrongs right in this and they did exactly that.
Well relating back to earlier these 3 games have been revamped in HD for the PS3. Even though I said HD games are a waste of time these gems are not missable. Yeah Jak II is pretty bad but each game has this childish charm to it (with a side order of destruction for 2&3). If you loved these games on PS2 then buy this collection and if you missed them first time round you now have no excuse to not buy it. However if you only liked one of the games or not a huge fan then I wouldn’t bother as you will gain nothing but extra trophies from this.
Jak & Daxter HD – 7/10
+J&D:TPL & Jak 3
-Jak II
